Some Harlem residents are finding something unsettling when they turn on the tap: brown, murky water gushing from faucets and filling bathtubs. The sight alone has been enough to send people to the corner deli for bottled water.

“When I got up this morning, I turned it on I was like really shocked—it’s totally brown,” Harlem resident Rose Miller told NY1 . “It’s not even light, it’s brown.”

The city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) insists the water is safe to drink , attributing the discoloration to naturally occurring minerals—mainly iron and manganese—from the Croton Reservoir System, which supplies much of Upper Manhattan and the Bronx. When hydrants are flushed or water mains are disturbed, those sediments can loosen, tinting the water anywhere from

See Full Page